The Coldest March: Scott`s Fatal Antarctic Expedition

Rating:
Summary: More Scott apologists bleating
Review: Yet another attempt to 'clear' the name of one of best examples of poor leadership in the history of exploration. This book documents many of Scott's errors but attempts to excuse them through judicious editing, taking quotes out of context, giving the same weight to her opinions, and reference to one-sided hypothetical situations. One thing that is even clearer to me after reading this is that Scott made many of the same errors on his first expedition but did not bother to learn from them or change anything important, surely this is critical in a leader? Another aspect of leadership is assuming things might go wrong and planning for them. Scott assuming EVERYTHING would go right with no margin for error. This included his final major poor decision to take five men, with only 4 sets of skis to the pole.
I think the author wants to believe the marketing about Scott not the evidence, which is disappointing in an acknowledged skilled scientist. She certainly didn't let many of the previously validated facts get in the way of her hypothesis.